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I'm an amateur myself, so obviously take what I say with a grain of salt. Also I'm interpreting what you're saying is general weight/strength training but not b

I'm an amateur myself, so obviously take what I say with a grain of salt. Also I'm interpreting what you're saying is general weight/strength training but not body building (think Arnold Schwarzenegger). Plainly put, there is isn't a super fast way. My understanding and experience is that muscle is developed over time with progressively more difficult weight. Critically, the recovery period for your muscles is required as that's when new muscle is being formed. I believe that rushing that process is what is most likely to lead to an injury, which funny enough will slow you down in the quest for strength. In other words, a heavy 6 day/week workout won't make you strong, but simply constantly exhausted. I would advocate for the long slow road. There's no rush, and I believe you'll be stronger in the long run if you take your time. It's easier to handle mentally too in my opinion. You don't have to stress about going fast to be strong quickly. Enjoy it! If you think weight lifting sounds cool, take up a program like Starting Strength or Strong Lifts 5x5. 3 days a week, often doing squats and throwing in bench press, dead lifts, and barbell rows. Take your time here! Look up videos on techniques and realize that people will be absolutists about form. Try and match the form, and be aware of different body types and how that will change the forms. Do this for a few cycles which would last 2-4 months. Assess your progress. It will be easy to tell because you'll be writing down your progress and adding weight each time you successfully complete a day. As it gets too difficult to maintain, look into new programs and go from there. If you're not into weight training, I think a site like this is great. You'll want to scale back on how many reps/sets a bit, and study some techniques. You'll feel some changes over time, and in the beginning mostly a bit of confusing soreness. Anyway, that's my recommendation! I genuinely hope you find what works for you and stick with it!

moneywoes 5y ago
Thank you for the comprehensive reply. Ultimately, my goal would be to escape my current long distance runner physique and build muscle. I feel like I've been spinning my wheels for the last 2 months. Would you still suggest the same program?
- pseudoramble 5y ago
  Yeah, it's the main recommendation I see is for people who have never done weight lifting to begin with something like this. I'd say do a 5x5 program consistently for 3 months, and track your progress over that time. If you follow the program, you'll progressively add weights each time you do that range until you complete a cycle or cannot complete the 5x5 set successfully. Ex: You start off at 100lbs x 5 reps on the bench press, twice per week. If you do a 3 week cycle, it might look like this: * 100 x 5 * 105 x 5 * 110 x 5 * 115 x 5 * 120 x 5 * 125 x 5 It's important to understand what you achieved here. Increasing weight this quickly is extremely good progress. Eventually you'll hit points where adding even 5lbs more feels difficult. So remember that 25lbs is a big amount. Keep that in mind as you go. Usually these programs will have you take a slight break/do light weights on the 4th week. Then you'll repeat the 4 week cycle, but you increase your starting point from 100lbs to 110lbs (or something along those lines). At some point, you'll get either bored of this or maybe start hitting the limits of them. Some of these programs have you squatting 5x5's three times a week, which after a while is exhausting. After that you can begin exploring other styles such as body building which emphasizes physique more than powerlifting or strongman.

moneywoes 5y ago

Thank you for the comprehensive reply. Ultimately, my goal would be to escape my current long distance runner physique and build muscle. I feel like I've been spinning my wheels for the last 2 months. Would you still suggest the same program?

pseudoramble 5y ago
Yeah, it's the main recommendation I see is for people who have never done weight lifting to begin with something like this. I'd say do a 5x5 program consistently for 3 months, and track your progress over that time. If you follow the program, you'll progressively add weights each time you do that range until you complete a cycle or cannot complete the 5x5 set successfully. Ex: You start off at 100lbs x 5 reps on the bench press, twice per week. If you do a 3 week cycle, it might look like this: * 100 x 5 * 105 x 5 * 110 x 5 * 115 x 5 * 120 x 5 * 125 x 5 It's important to understand what you achieved here. Increasing weight this quickly is extremely good progress. Eventually you'll hit points where adding even 5lbs more feels difficult. So remember that 25lbs is a big amount. Keep that in mind as you go. Usually these programs will have you take a slight break/do light weights on the 4th week. Then you'll repeat the 4 week cycle, but you increase your starting point from 100lbs to 110lbs (or something along those lines). At some point, you'll get either bored of this or maybe start hitting the limits of them. Some of these programs have you squatting 5x5's three times a week, which after a while is exhausting. After that you can begin exploring other styles such as body building which emphasizes physique more than powerlifting or strongman.